File 2764/1904 Pt 3 'Baghdad Railway: general negotiations 1910-1912.' [‎118r] (244/544)

[This D ocnment is the Property of His Britanni c Majesty’s Government. '
EASTERN DEPARTMENT.
+
SECRET SERIES.
[1728]
No. 1 .
Sir G. Buchanan to Sir Edward Grey .—{Received January 16 )
(No. 11.) '
r> - *• ?“;«•"* • -tid, S^SSffi£^aS^».
foreign press respecting the course of the negotiations now proceeding at St. Petersburgh
for the purpose of incorporating in a diplomatic act the results of the Potsdfm
conversations, it may perhaps be useful to recapitulate briefly the explanations whfch
Joints “ t0 tlm6 b6en glV6n M - Saz0no "' with - g ard P to their s"
r' o . 0n ¥/ etum , from Berli , n . M - Sazonow informed Mr. O’Beirne that, while
leimany had agreed not to seek for any concessions of a territorial character within
be connected 8 aJKban-V 813 Z $ 6 Bagdad Railwa y should eventually
be connected at Khamkm with the future North Persian railway system. Russia was
Til T C .? nStri T the Sadi i^-Khanikin line in the event of The
Gulf section of the Bagdad Railway being granted to Great Britain. His Excellency
further communicated to Mr. O’Beirne the assurances which the German Chancellor
ia given him respecting Germany’s future policy in the Near East. At the same
time M. Sazonow informed a correspondent of the “Novoe Vremva ” of the general
tenoui of the agreement arrived at with regard to North Persia and the Bagdad
Railway, and assured him that no attempt had been made at Potsdam to draw Russia
away from her alliance with France and her cordial agreement with England. On my
arnval at St. Petersburg!! a month later, M. Sazonow communicated to me the text of
the draft agreement which he had just submitted to Count PourtaRs, according to the
irs.t artlcwlllCdl Russia engages not to oppose the realisation of the Bagdad
Railway. This engagement, his ExceRency subsequently explained, had only
reference to the railway as far as Bagdad, and not to the whole railway system
inclusive of the Gulf section and its other branches. ' ^ ’
,i tlle - De 1 c . em ^ er \ drew his Excellency’s attention to the statement made by
t e German Chancellor m the Reichstag a few days-previously that an engagement
had been taken to the effect that neither of the two Governments would join a
combination that might be in any way directed against the other. His Excellency
t ereupon proceeded to explain that assurances had been exchanged between him and
the German Chancellor to the effect that neither Government had the slightest desire
to detach the other from the particular combination of Powers with which it was
associated, and that neither of these respective combinations contained any point that
was directed against the other. He further informed the French Ambassador on the
same day that, though the text of the Chancellor’s statement had not been drafted in
concert with him, it had been previously submitted to him by the German Ambassador
and that he had raised no objections to its terms.
On the 31st December the “Novoe Vremya ” announced that the Russian
Government were about to send a note to the German Government in reply to the
enquiries which the latter had addressed to them after the conclusion of the
• n i l 0 f; i ? S 1 1 , ail T, Agree S, e ? t res P ec R n & their future attitude towards German interests
m the Middle East. This note, the “Novoe Vremya” declared, would state that the
two Governments had agreed not to take any part in any new combination “with
legard to Asiatic affairs which might be directed against the other. On my
questioning M. Sazonow as to the truth of this statement, his Excellency explained
ij -u• cor ^ es P°l 1 dent of the “ Novoe Vremya ” had misrepresented what had been
told him at the Ministry of Foreign^ Affairs respecting the negotiations with Germany
and that the draft agreement of which he had given me the text was the only answer
which he proposed to return to the German note of 1907. His language to the French
Ambassador, who addressed a similar enquiry to him a day or two later, was still more
explicit, as his Excellency then declared th^t no other document, secret or public had
eithei been prepared or was in course of preparation for communication to the
[1852 ?~1]
IT